Turbulence is a common part of air travel, but some experiences can be truly unforgettable. Whether it’s a few seconds of unexpected jolts or a prolonged period of rough air, severe turbulence can leave a lasting impression on even the most seasoned flyers.. With recent reports indicating that turbulence events are becoming more common we want to know what your turbulence experiences have been?
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Several years ago, coming from Newarc, passing over Ireland in a 747, we got a god warning about jumpy weather conditions. There were several tranee cabin attendents on board, they got a good (?) experience; as the jumping got worse, several of the newies fell over and screamed, sounded as some rally panniced. Experiensed crew had to really take care of theese – probably a good selection were done.
On a short flight from London Luton to Amsterdam Shiphol on approach we bouncing up and down and seriously lurching. The woman next to me had white knuckles gripping the armrest saying ”This is what you get flying Easyjet!”. Made me chuckle.
“This is what you get flying Easyjet!”. Good lesson there. Always keep your sense of humour, no matter what.
On final approach into Chicago Midway Airport. Kudos to the pilots, very turbulent. I had my seat belt as tight as possible and it was throwing us around pretty badly. In fact, they closed the runway for other traffic until the weather subsided after we landed. I am a private pilot, I would not have wanted to been flying the plane that time! LOL!!!
I was flying from MAN/EGCC – VIE/LOWW via DUS/EDDL. The leg from MAN – DUS I flew Eurowings and the aircraft flew into the vortex of another aircraft. The aircraft (A320-214) dropped a few feet and shook. Everyone was fine and the flight continued on to DUS. Vienna was beautiful! I highly recommend anyone to go there!
In 2000 I was working for copa airlines and had to fly on a flight PTY SJO MGA SAL GUA. Same airplane. PTYSJO had a bit of turbulence but nothing out of the ordinary. SJOMGA was bad but not as bad as MGASAL. The guy sitting next to me said that he was going to get out and that Copa would have to provide him with a hotel. I didn’t identify as an employee but did tell him…. “if the airline is operating the flight, not only you will not get a hotel, but you will have to pay for another ticket to get to Guatemala”. The guy looked at me in disbelief and asked if I was sure. I said “101%”. He stayed. Upon arrival in Guatemala, I was last off with the crew and overheard the pilot telling maintenance to look for structural damage onto the 737-200. It was that bad. Ahh , yes. The guy saw me talking to other Copa employees and realized I was one too. Man! If looks could kill!!! … but I did save him pretty penny.
Flying from London Heathrow to Dublin just before Christmas about 44 years ago on Aer Lingus, the rattling of the prayer beads were all we could hear as we flew into Dublin Airport through very strong winds. Also the plane’s engines were busy, as they battled to keep the plane on course. The airport was closed to all air traffic after we landed because of the turbulent weather. All the customs officers appeared to have left as we walked through the airport with our luggage.
Flew from Milwaukee to Charlotte-Douglas via American Airlines on an airbus A320 back in August 2024. We were on decent into Charlotte when we were told by the pilot that we were going to go around a thunderstorm. We went thru a part of the storm and the plane was tossed around like a toy. Here too find out we practically flew through a severe thunderstorm.
Coming over the front range into DEN (i.e. from the west) is usually choppy or worse, especially during the Summer when thunderstorms form over the mountains and move down onto the plains. In 1997 we were returning from Seattle on a UAL DC-10. Approaching DIA from the northwest it was so rough that overhead bins were popping open and spilling contents onto passenger heads. Really rough stuff, but the DC-10 was such an amazing aircraft that it was unfazed.
Flew from Moisant MSY to San Fransico SFO in the early 60’s on a Delta Propliner. Somewhere over the SE we hit clear air turbulence (or as the crew called it “an air-pocket”) while the stews were serving beverages. The beverage cart hit the ceiling along with two female crew members (in high heels and miniskirts, the uniform of the day). The weightless crew and cart were pinned to the ceiling, for what seemed like a second or two, before crashing into the aisle and a couple of aisle-seated passengers directly in front of us. Coca-Cola was served in glass bottles in those days, which to say the least, added a degree of complexity and chaos to the resultant excitement and cleanup.
End result – One stewardess sprained her ankle and wound up with it wrapped in a towel filled with ice, and 6-8 other passengers had bumps, contusions, sprains, superficial injuries, or lacerations (one being my older sister who bears the scar on her forehead (from a shard of glass) to this day. My sister blamed having been restrained by her seatbelt for preventing her from dodging flying debris, to which I argued, was a far sight better than being slammed head-first into the fuselage.
No one sued, complained, cried, or demanded their money back. All were grateful for the mercy of God, and the flight crew, for getting us to our destination without further incident. Once we touched down, all passengers erupted in a round of applause that lasted practically until we taxied to our gate.
BTW: My father was a frequent flier and even though we were flying without either of our parents that day, my sisters and I, were instructed always to keep our seatbelts fastened when in an aircraft.
I was flying from MAN/EGCC – VIE/LOWW via DUS/EDDL. The leg from MAN – DUS I flew Eurowings and the aircraft flew into the vortex of another aircraft. The aircraft (A320-214) dropped a few feet and shook. Everyone was fine and the flight continued on to DUS. Vienna was beautiful! I highly recommend anyone to go there! https://crown.fr
About 30 years ago on a flight from Zurich to Brussels I was seated next to a young on duty air hostess. Shortly after take off we experienced severe turbulence and were struck by lightning. Big boom and ALL cabin lights went off. Being at night the cabin was pitch black and the hostess clutched my arm for quite a long time. 2 or 3 minutes later the pilot explained that he had tested all vital systems, light came on and we would continue our flight to Brussels. In all a pleasant experience ! I am a pilot.
A few years ago we were returning from Barbados to Manchester. Just after cabin crew had been round collecting meal remnants the plane, without any warning, suddenly dropped for about two seconds, twice in quick succession. Followed by screaming and crying. Fortunately I always have my seat belt on and fastened but I was most annoyed when the wine in a glass I was holding suddenly left and I watched it all the way up to the ceiling. The Captain then apologised for not having a warning system switched on. A couple of minutes later a lady appeared from one of the toilets as white as a sheet. God knows what happened to her in side that small room.
By the way, the film everyone was watching was Titanic.
Coming back from LAX to HNL on NY’s eve. Seems it took forever to get to HNL. We should have been landing by then. Then I finally saw that we’d been in a holding pattern off of Oahu, for a long time. We diverted to ITO. We gassed up and waited for what seemed like forever to return to HNL. According to my flight radar 24 map, we were to go North of the islands along their north shores…I was seated in the middle of the 3 seats (A 330) as it tapers just forward of the lavs. The tail gets more motion. As we were rolling down the runway it seemed forever to break ground…We were swinging . I was seated between two young men. One was a teacher who took up all of his seat and then some. The rest of the way to HNL was bumpy and we seemed to hit pockets and loose my stomach as we dropped. I’ve never been so scared and wanted to grab the big guy next to me and hold on for all it was worth. I restrained myself however. i remember my former pilot boyfriend telling me it is safer to fly than drive a car…hold that thought…it turned out that we were South of the islands all the way to HNL. I got home safely and have flown many flights since then. Give me smooth air anytime!
During a bomb cyclone in SWA3115!
It was a Military MAC flight from Frankfurt Germany to Ft. Dix to be discharged. We were heading to Dublin to refuel or change crews, not sure which. As we started our decent,the bottom dropped out during heavy turbulence. I thought it was all over. Flew back to Frankfurt at least 50 times since, never had a repeat.
Vegas to Wichita, plane free falling 15,000 feet slamming into next air level 3 times in lightning and storm, total silence, everyone praying. At night. 1998
several years ago i flown from Monaster to Manchester we left Monaster with tail end of thunder storm ones the plain gained hes hight things got worse ….banging thumping shock us from side to side people scraming ….
This is a bit historical. In about 1958, I was flying from RAF Yeadon (now Leeds Bradford International) to Nutt’s Corner (the civil part of RAF Aldergrove) near Belfast in a BKS Airlines Douglas DC3. As we were somewhere between the Isle of Man and the Irish coast, we ran into an electrical storm. Balls of lightning were running around the wings and fuselage (St Elmo’s fire?) and we dropped 1200 feet – like a stone. Interesting.
Leaving Cheyenne WY in our Mooney during mountain wave conditions. Climb to FL180 southbound, flew into a dry rotor, no warning. Our plane was uncontrollable, tumbling, at times inverted, at times tail first, like being in a clothes dryer. After only a few seconds we were in smooth air again. Minor injuries to my wife, so we landed in Albuquerque for a rest and a stiff drink.
I don’t know if this counts as turbulence; but flying out of Kai Tak to Sydney on a Cathay Pacific B747 in a typhoon. I fell asleep after boarding and thought that we were airborne when I awoke, but it was just the wind rocking the aircraft on the stand. On climb out, we took an almighty drop. Many passengers were screaming and calling on their Almighty. I don’t think that there were too many people in the cabin, myself included, who didn;t think that we were going down.
Back in the 1980s we flew from Faro (Portugal) to London in a 747 and encountered very turbulent conditions on the approach and landing. We were up and down like a funfair ride, skidding from side to side. People were screaming, knuckles were white, luggage was falling out of overhead lockers, the engines were winding up and down alarmingly and nothing was visible outside except cloud and rain. Eventually we thankfully touched down as light as a feather with much applause from the passengers. As we taxied to arrivals the Captain came on the intercom to say that in all his 30 years of flying in and out of Heathrow these were the worst conditions he had ever experienced with wind shear, hailstones etc etc, but he thought that the “the First Officer handled the approach and landing perfectly!!” Great cheers from the passengers!!!
Coming home to NJ in the summer of 1982. I was surprising my family for my brother’s high school graduation. PHX-MCI leg we suddenly dropped 1500 feet then 1000 feet. The flight attendant was near my row serving drinks. She hit the ceiling as did the service cart. Her arm got broken and there was damage to the seats and ceiling from the beverage cart. It was nothing like I ever experienced before and hopefully ever again. I took several years off from traveling after that! Life can be a strange leveler at times—I ended up as a flight attendant. 😊
Landing in Zurich on Swiss A320 on a. MAN- ZRH – MAD flight
Wether bad on approach to ZRH and had 2 go arounds. Was very bumpy. I was in 2D and the woman in 1D was screaming we are all going to die – on cue the cabin crew passed her a muffin – which she eat!
On departure to MAd we had aborted takeoff as winds were too strong. We drove around the airport to a new runway – took off like a rocket ship and smooth all the way to Madrid. An eventful afternoon/ evening !
Back in the 1960’s, we were flying back from Puerto Rico, Eastern Airlines DC-8 Super 61. We hit a patch of turbulence with the aircraft losing altitude and gaining altitude fast and hard. It was night time. Thankfully I had my seat belt on.
On june 26 2018, I was in a flight from Istanbul to Bishkek.
The airplane was a Turkish airline Boeing 737 800
It had been impossible to land at Bishkek airport due to very high level turbulence conditions at around 3000 ft.
After three times tentative to land, the captain decided to land at Almaty airport in Kazakhstan.
I’am a former glider pilot and I was really worried by that situation and the crew too.
In 1977 : flight Hartford – JFk.
Severe thunderstorms and airplane flew through : we felt seconds , did not feel our seat anymore , a lot of noise and lightnings , dark outside , then again very strong air impact , panic on board , people started praying … all that for about 15 minutes
At the time, I was a very experienced flyer. Flown so many times flying was no big deal I’d be sleeping before the plane took off.
Then one night flying over Denver that plane flew into turbulence that was so bad it caught my attention. We shook for what felt like Days it was that bad. I didn’t panic However it did get my attention. People were scared to move. So I looked like the guy who couldn’t care less about the situation. BUT believe me it scared the crap out of me. Me the so called experienced big shot. Scared to death. I honestly thought this plane was going to fall apart. The wings were flapping like a bird i knew the wings were strong and flexible But this was over the normal turbulence. Finally we got out of the turbulence and smoothly flying again, Lesson learned never say never the turbulence is a bit scary at times.
I was once flying on Bonza in Australia once and I had been served hot choc, 1 second later, a huge air pocket full of severe turbulence engulfed the plane! Man, my cup of hot choc was empty and I was saturated. At least I was warm as the air con system was on so low!
I guess I have the luck of the Irish, or not. My worse two flights were by chance on Twin Otters 32 years apart and 4,900 miles apart. While heading home from Army Advanced Training through Boston Logan into Burlington, VT late at night during a raging snow storm, our aircraft lost several hundred feet 3 or 4 times with the pilot struggling to regain altitude each time over the Green Mts. To make matters worse, upon landing, the aircraft skidded into a snow bank left over from the plows on the main runway 33!
32 years later on a pleasure/business trip to Maui via Kapalua Airport as soon as we passed the Molokai Channel in between Lanai and Molokai, we commenced having severe turbulence all the way into the threshold, landing on the left side landing gear.
This appears to be more normal than I had figure since I had several more flights into Kapalua the next 10 years. Turbulence can occur at any elevation and does not matter aircraft type, speed, weight of aircraft, or weather apparently.
So ending up at the Ritz Carlton pool with a Mai Tai, much better outcome than departing the Twin Otter in a freezing snow storm in BTV!
Flying from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean to Toronto on an evening flight in 2006. Soon after take but in level flight we had a sudden drop of altitude. After we regained level flight my right ear was very painful. I later learned that the incident had burst my ear drum. I have worn hearing aids ever since.
1975 flying from Rhodes to Athens. Beautiful warm weather in Rhodes, a freak snow storm as we arrived in Athens. Not too far out from Athens we experienced some very heavy turbulence and at one point what felt like a massive drop in altitude. Anything loose in the cabin was scattered. I imagine we had crossed the boundary between the warmer and colder air at the point where we lost altitude.
Traveling from Hargeisa to Addis Ababa and flying B 737-800 max, which was prohibited flying from around the world. The airplane bouncing up and down for almost 2 min. It was horrible and fearful turbulence. People shouting and and Oxygen masks dropping.
Last year in April, I was landing at Tokyo Haneda in an a321. On the final approach I experienced turbulence which banked our aircraft 40 degrees on the left side. It was very terrifying because the wind was reaching 30 knots.
A few years ago we were coming back from Lanzarote to Glasgow and when we were over France the turbulence was heavy stuff. We could not fly higher as another aircraft was above us and our plane descended to about 25000 feet but was still getting bounced about. This carried on until we got near Ireland and over the Irish Sea. Worst ever flight for me
Flew with my family from Las Palmas to Tenerife Norte at Christmas time in 1970, on an F27. Short flight of about 30 minutes, fine day, but flying into a strong head wind made it quite bumpy and, as a child, scary. Now an experienced flyer, i tend to rationalise mostly moderate turbulence, but even one of my brothers recently mentioned ‘the flight from hell’ during a reminisce.
J’ai connu moultes turbulences au cours de ma carrière de Personnel Navigant Commercial. J’ai volé sur plusieurs types d’avions : ailes hautes, ailes basses, jets ( F28 MD83 )Avions conventionnels ( FH227, Nord262) c’était dans les années 70/90…
J’ai constaté que plus l’envergure des ailes était grande et moins la turbulence était dure. Le F28 a des ailes assez courtes. C’est un jet de 65 pax avec 2 hotesses/steward en cabine.
Ce jour d’août 1986 nous allions à Dublin depuis Charles De Gaulle. Le ciel était clair, l’air stable. J’ai répondu à l’appel du capitaine qui, me montrant les deux enclumes de cumulonimbus devant nous, me dit : ” attention risque de turbuler”. Je sécurise les passagers par les annonces, le rangement et l’attache des voitures-repas ( nous venions de servir le repas et les boissons) le signal lumineux attachez vos ceintures était allumé. La turbulence étant aléatoire et le second signal ne pas fumer étant éteint, je décide de servir le café à la main. Sans aucun signe premier l’avion est entré dans un mouvement de haut en bas et de bas en haut violemment ( nous avons pris 2G et -2G rare en vol commercial) … mes émotions se sont bloquées. J’ai été projetée à plusieurs reprises du sol au plafond et du plafond plaquée au sol ( à cheval sur un accoudoir ) puis retour au plafond pour finir assise au sol. J’ai pris une profonde inspiration qui m’a assuré que le fuselage était entier. Un ouragan état passé dans la cabine : tous les bagages etaint tombés sur les petits pois et les jus de fruit, le vin déjà au sol… seul un passager a vu sa ceinture se détacher. Il a defoncé le rack avec sa tête et il n’a probablement pas voulu m’en dire plus quand je lui ai soigné la blessure qu’il avait sur la tempe. Une passagère toute de blanc vêtue tenait plus d’une peinture impressionniste que d’une photo de magazine. Son vin s’était déversé sur son tailleur blanc ( le moindre mal ) . Ma collègue a eu plus de chance que moi : dès la première turbulence, un passager l’a ceinturée de ses bras et l’a maintenue jusqu’à la fin des aller retours… Ce fut très bref mais intense. Mais les co séquences ont été graves pour moi: deux ans de rééducation pour éviter la chaise roulante à vie. 15 ans avant de pouvoir me servir de mon bras droit correctement: j’ai été déclarée médicalement inapte au vol et j’ai gardé une fragilité post traumatique. Je suis née dans le voyage. Je ne peux m’empêcher de voyager. Le blocage émotionnel que j’ai fait ce jour là n’a jamais été gueri. Mais malgré tout je continue de voler ( pour moi ) avec la peur d’avoir peur … Après ça, si j’avais douté de sa solidité, Je sais combien un avion est solide. Restez bien attachés et tout ira bien. Pensez que sur l’eau il en va de même et sur terre aussi car tout ce qui est en haut est comme ce qui est en bas et rien n’est comme ce qu’il paraît. J’avais mal préjugé des risques de turbulences. Je me suis attachée à l’allumage du no smoking ( un code entre le cockpit et la cabine ) au lieu de suivre mon intuition…
Le pire moment de vol duquel je ne suis pas encore revenue depuis… 39 ans.